Garbage game beaten with a lame 47% but I am not going to try and find the missing percents which I assume are secret exits to levels that link to extra levels and things like that? This game is pretty extraordinary in that there is not one single good level in it and not an ounce of enjoyement to be had, at least as a first time player (the speed of the character, its almost nonexistent inertia and its ability to jump instantly after landing possibly makes for some enjoyable dashes through the levels when you are familiar with them). The main problem of the game is that you can't see shit. The size and speed of the character relative to the field of view along with a terrible "smart" camera results in most of the jumps being blind and most enemies spawning in your face. It becomes comical when you realize the jumps are blind in multiple ways. Sometimes you don't see what is ahead, sometime you don't see what is bellow and sometime the character jumps above the screen so he is out of view.... In the end it's almost a farce as there are several levels with dimming lights, flickering lights or with a bird that lights you way, so the jumps become literally blind! As a result, even the dullest of levels (and boy are they served in many flavors of dull) can become annoying and frustrating.
It should be mentioned at this point that even with a zoomed out view that would make the game more playable, the game would still be terrible because it's all about a character that can't do shit. There is not a single interesting gameplay idea in the control of the character. Throwing the barrels could be it, but it's shoddily implemented and vaguely used twice as a core level design element. You would also think that a game released 4 years after Super Mario World would improve on its world map and save system, but nope, DKC manages to make it a different flavor of bad. It's so great to start each play session by going through the first stage of the first level a dozen time to gather a truck load of lives to be sure you will be able to reach the next travel station or save point without worries...
Lastly, while I can appreciate the originality of the assets generation process of DKC - and what '90s nerd is not hit by a wave of nostalgia when confronted with the words "Silicon Graphics" ? - I am left unconvinced by its results (as I do in Super Mario RPG). From an artistic point of view, I find the visual design extremely dubious and from a technical point of view, the resulting sprites look like overly compressed jpeg, probably because of palette limitations that don't agree with the nuances of mapped and shaded renders.
When I dove into my archive to recover my DKC cartridge, I also unearthed the DKC2 one. If I am in a better mood than right now, I might give it shot at some point during January. Donkey Kong Country apologists tend to prefer the sequel...